Madison and Guilford officials say they will not pay $163,050 for garbage never sent to a Preston trash-burning plant.

Madison is responsible for half the costs of a "put-in-pay" fee for 1992-93. Under that concept, the fee is determined on the basis of the amount of garbage the town expects to generate - not the amount actually delivered.

"We're just going to say we're not going to do it," First Selectman Thomas R. Rylander said. "We're saying we can no longer accept the terms of the resource recovery authority contract, because it discriminates against Guilford and Madison in terms of put-in-pay and minimum tonnage."

Madison and Guilford are locked into a 20- to 25-year contract with the Southeastern Connecticut Regional Resources Recovery Authority that stipulates their shipping a set minimum amount of garbage to the Preston trash-to-energy plant.

The authority had expected Madison and Guilford to deliver 18,000 tons of garbage to the plant last year, but only about 15,000 tons were sent, said D. Stewart MacMillan Jr., Madison's public works director and town engineer.

"We have not met our commitment for the past couple of years," Rylander said.

Authority officials initially said they would not enforce the put-in pay clause for Madison and Guilford, but now they are, Rylander said. Town officials are also annoyed because other towns in the authority have been given a reduced minimum tonnage rate for 1994-95, while Madison and Guilford's fee has increased.

Several factors have contributed to the towns' decrease in garbage tonnage since the 1987 high of 28,000 tons, MacMillan said. Among them, the recession, recycling and trash haulers' failure to take garbage from the two towns to the Guilford-Madison transfer station, as required by town ordinance.

"We're at a rate of about 15,000 tons per year," MacMillan said. But it doesn't take much to change the amount of garbage lost or delivered, depending upon whether a trash hauler stops delivering or begins depositing 100 to 200 tons a month, he said.

An officer has been hired to monitor trash haulers and to catch those who refuse to take trash to the transfer station for shipping to Preston.

"There's garbage out there somewhere," MacMillan said.

In addition to unanimously agreeing Monday to refuse to pay its $81,252 share of the put-in-pay fee, selectmen also approved a recommendation to reject a 21,000-ton minimum commitment set by the authority for next year's garbage. Both towns will instead commit to an 18,000-ton rate, Rylander said.